“Prince of Pot” Marc Emery To Be Sentenced Friday, September 10

By
Cannabis Culture
on September 6, 2010

CANNABIS CULTURE – Marc Scott Emery, the leader of the BC Marijuana Party and well-known marijuana activist and businessman, will be sentenced in a US Federal Courtroom in Seattle, Washington on Friday, September 10.

Marc Emery is expected to be formally sentenced to the 5-year term he agreed to in his plea deal. If the judge sentences him to more or less time, the deal will be null and void, and a trial will ensue with the possibility of 30 years to life in prison.

Jodie Emery, wife of Marc Emery, will be at the US Federal Court (700 Stewart Street, downtown Seattle) at noon on Friday to meet with supporters and media.

“It’s nerve-wracking to go through this process,” Jodie said, “but Marc and I are both doing our best to stay strong. We know he is a political prisoner and, no matter the outcome on Friday, we just want him to be brought home to serve his sentence in Canada.”

Public Safety Minister Vic Toews is responsible for Marc’s repatriation to Canada. He has received hundreds of letters and phone calls asking him to approve Marc’s transfer treaty request to come home, as required by law and the Charter.

The Drug Enforcement Administration, on the day of Marc’s arrest in 2005, said that he was targeted as “the founder of a legalization group” and it was “a significant blow to the marijuana legalization movement” because “hundreds of thousands of dollars of Emery’s illicit profits were channeled to drug legalization groups active in the United States and Canada”.

(The press release can be found online at www.FreeMarc.ca under “Who Is Marc Emery” or by downloading the original file at http://www.cannabisculture.com/files/Tandystatement.jpg)

Though the DEA and the media have reported that Marc “made millions of dollars”, Jodie Emery insists the money was all given away to activism groups and events.

“Marc started selling seeds with the explicit goal of funding the marijuana legalization movement, which he did tremendously well, to the tune of $4 million dollars over the decade he was in business,” she said. “He paid his income tax on seed sales, and operated openly and transparently. Marc and I have no savings, bonds, stocks, property, cars, homes, or anything of value. On the day of his arrest, he had $11 in his bank account. Marc Emery sold seeds not for personal profit, but for drug policy reform and progress that has, since he started in 1994, been very successful.”

On Saturday, September 18, rallies are being held in over 57 cities in North America and abroad. This is the fourth Worldwide Rally to Free Marc Emery since 2005. Thousands of people support Marc Emery and have participated in activism to raise awareness of his history and current incarceration.

Marc is currently imprisoned at the maximum-security SeaTac Federal Detention Centre. He was subjected to three weeks in solitary confinement for a “prison podcast” recording, but has been in general population since.